Wayne Montecalvo - The Clown Room
March 4th- April 22, 2006

Wayne Montecalvo’s video work is very deliberately fringe.  It brings the viewer to the brink of what is acceptable in terms of technique, content and tolerance… and then gives them a shove. The theme and visuals are often tied together by the artists’ interest in examining cultural phenomena.  For the past two years, Montecalvo has been inventing characters to inhabit a parallel reality; a tabloid-toting, soap-opera universe where he reveals the dark underbelly of human nature - one in which clowns, (wink-wink) can get away with murder. 

Begun as a for a video-editing exercise, “Clown!” has evolved into an on-going video sketchbook that feeds into the artists’ painting and printmaking projects, costume and prop-making, and collaborations with people from the Rosendale community and beyond.  For “The Clown Room”, the gallery at no_space will be transformed into a fantasy Carney dressing room, where visitors will have an opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes view, while applying their own clown make-up, and maybe whacking a mole or two.

www.waynemontecalvo.com